Sunday, October 11, 2009

Is it just me, or are some Red Sox fans just missing the point?

I was listening to the Baseball Show on WEEI yesterday for a while, and it seemed like call after call was complaining about Terry Francona's handling of Josh Beckett in the 7th inning of Game 2. Should he have been taken out earlier? Maybe, but Beckett has more than proven his ability to work his way out of jams. He only threw 103 pitches total. He just missed a couple of spots and the Angels did a good job of taking advantage, as you would expect a good team to do.

Yet, one guy actually managed to compare this to Grady/Pedro in the 2003 ALCS.

In any event, aren't these people completely missing the point? The pitching hasn't been bad. The Red Sox are down 2-0 in the ALDS BECAUSE THEY ONLY SCORED ONE RUN IN TWO GAMES! Lackey and Weaver have been brilliant, the Sox bats have been dead, and that's why we have our backs up against the wall this morning.

Of course, things are far from lost. This is hardly the first time the Red Sox have been in this position in the last decade. They managed to win series after being down at least two games four times in the last decade - 1999 vs. Cleveland, 2003 vs. Oakland, 2004 against the Yankees and 2007 against the Tribe again. They forced a 7th game last year after being down 3-1 to the Rays last year and down 7-0 in game 5.

Hopefully some home cooking does the Red Sox bats some good and Scott Kazmir has jet lag or something. Otherwise, it's going to be a long time until Spring Training.